iRntered as second-class matter at the Post-Offlce at Hamilton. 111., under Act of Match 3. 1879,1 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT, Editor. 



DR. C. C, MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL, DECEMBER, 1913 



Vol. LIII.-No. 12 



Editorial 



Comments 



Our Frouti.spiece 



Our frontispiece is a reduced cut of 

 the famous Dzierzon, the discoverer of 

 parthenogenesis, with his autograph. 

 This was mentioned in our October 

 number, page 344. 



VVoiulerlul C:roi) at Dr. Miller's 



The subscribers will read with great 

 interest the marvelous report of Dr. C. 

 C. Miller's honey crop for 1913, given 

 by Miss Wilson in the "Sisters' De- 

 partment." This report shows what 

 good management, careful selection, a 

 good crop and a good location all 

 combined can do. At 15 cents per 

 section, or $1,80 per 12-pound case, the 

 returns would be $3;).97 per colony. In 

 view of the fact that Dr. Miller has 

 had to fight European foul brood, we 

 believe this report should cheer up the 

 discouraged ones who wonder whether 

 it is worth while to keep bees when 

 disease is in the land. 



The Bigelow Swarming Theory 



The article in the October number, 

 by our good friend Mr. Bigelow, has 

 brought a flood of protests, only a few 

 of which were published. It is gratify- 

 ing to see how quickly practical apiar- 

 ists come to the rescue, when attempts 

 are made to wreck some proven facts 

 in natural history. Yet in some cases 

 wrong theories are perinitted to float a 

 long time before they are crushed. 

 During our trip abroad, we had quite 

 a heated discussion with an active, 

 practical apiarist who had propounded 



the idea, in print, that the Dzierzon 

 theory was wrong, because in four dif- 

 ferent instances he had noticed drone- 

 brood around a queen-cell. He was 

 sure that the bees could change the 

 sex by feeding a different food, and 

 that they had changed the sex of those 

 larvx around each cell, in order to 

 have drones to fertilize those queens 

 when they hatched. He held to this 

 tenaciously, and was only vanquished 

 when his attention was called to the 

 fact which he could not contr?dict, 

 that those drones, being of the same 

 age as the queen, would hatch so much 

 later than she; that she would be 

 already mated when they came out of 

 their cell. 



Another man, who was tearing down 

 all the text-books by asserting that wax 

 costs the bees only a pound or two of 

 honey for each pound of wax, and that 

 he had proven it by the financial profits 

 which he had reaped, turned out to be 

 a financial failure, seeking for inves- 

 tors. 



Mr. Bigelow is good-natured, and in 

 good faith, but he will have to give up 

 that theory of plurality of queens in 

 the first swarms, just as the followers 

 of Alexander had to give up the at- 

 tempt at keeping several laying queens 

 in each colony during the season. The 

 text-books are all right yet. 



Since writing the above, we have re- 

 ceived a letter from Mr. Bigelow, in- 

 sisting on the "purpose of the drone in 

 the natural swarm." We do not be- 

 lieve that it is necessary to show that 

 nature has a purpose in inducing the 



drone to follow the swarm, any more 

 than in permitting him to join any 

 strong colony to which he is attracted, 

 by the noise they make. Many things 

 in nature have no plausible purpose, 

 as, for instance, the nipples on a man's 

 breast. But Dr. Miller sends us the 

 following which would perhaps satisfy 

 those who, like Mr. Bigelow, want to 

 see a purpose in every action, in every 

 habit of the insects : 



On the whole it would be a good 

 thing for all beekeepers if they could 

 have at least a little of Dr. Bigelow's 

 enthusiastic search for reasons, even 

 in cases where there's no money in it. 

 Life wouM be broader and more worth 

 the living. It's a sad thing for al. of 

 us when we lose the spirit of the child 

 who pulls the watch to pieces to find 

 what makes the wheels go 'round. 



In the present instance, Dr. Bigelow 

 sees drones in a swarm, recalls noth- 

 ing said about it in bee literature, and 

 then reasons something after the fol- 

 lowing fashion : The oflice of drones 

 is to mate with virgins ; drones are 

 found in a swarm ; ergo, there must 

 be virgins in the swarm. 



At the present day it is the practice 

 quite generally to prevent after-swarms, 

 so almost every swarm is a prime 

 swarm, having a laying queen. We all 

 know that there are virgins in after- 

 swarms, the question is whether there 

 are any in prime swarms. For many 

 years it has been my practice to scruti- 

 nize closely every colony with a lay- 

 ing queen that by any reasonable pos- 

 sibility might be expected to swarm, 

 and that about once every 10 days for 

 about 3 months' time. The object of 

 the scrutiny was to discover and de- 

 stroy all queen-cells. If virgins go 

 with prime swarms, I should among 

 those thousands of cases have found at 

 least a few cases in which vacated cells 

 showed that virgins had emerged be- 

 fore the issuing of a swarm. I never 

 found one. 



Another thing already mentioned by 

 another writer. During nearly all of 

 my bee-keeping experience I have kept 

 my queens clipped. In spite of all my 

 efforts to the contrary, I have had 

 many swarms to issue. They would 



